The Common Good

Chapter 4, which begins Part II, addresses the moral theory from the African tradition according to which one is obligated to promote the common good without violating individual rights. This principle has been advanced by Kwame Gyekye, one of the most widely discussed African moral philosophers of the past twenty-five years. His ‘moderate communitarian’ ethic, although focused on promoting well-being, differs from Western utilitarianism, such that one cannot argue against the former by invoking well-known criticisms of the latter. The chapter advances fresh reasons for rejecting Gyekye’s welfarist approach to morality, principally on the ground that it does a poor job of capturing several intuitions salient in the African tradition. Sometimes permitting great inequalities of wealth, being competitive in the economic sphere, and undermining cultures can best improve well-being without violating individual rights, yet many African philosophers would judge these actions to be wrong to some degree.

National Economic Power. Dynamic Model

The national power can be considered in a static and dynamic aspect as well. This applies to all dimensions of the national power, both military and non-military, including the economic one presented in this article. The national power, treated in a static sense as one of the leading features of the state and estimated over a given period, can only be descriptive. On the other hand, it gains a new dimension in a dynamic sense that consists in the possibility of developing the research into a prognostic area. Therefore, this approach to the issue of the national power has been presented here. The research hypothesis is that on the basis of available statistical data it is possible to construct a verifiable dynamic descriptive model of the national economic power, which enables comparative analyses of the group of selected countries. The research took advantage of statistical methods of selecting variables for linear models and methods of system analysis, including multi-criteria, taxonomic method of comparative analysis. Analyses that have been performed allowed to create a dynamic descriptive model of the national power in the economic sphere. The constructed model was positively verified based on the available figures for the selected group of countries. The conducted calculations suggest that it is possible to use this model for further analyses of the national power in the economic sphere.

Investigation of economic crimes: the birth of a scientific school

The article examines the initial stage — the birth of the scientific school "Criminalistics means of ensuring the economic security of Russia". The significant features of the School are stated, scientific and methodological tasks of forming a model of the mechanism of criminal activity are revealed. At the same time, the following dependencies are asserted: 1) the mechanism of criminal activity in the economic sphere depends on the environment of functioning; 2) the investigation methodology depends on the structure and content of the forensic characteristics of an economic crime.

Populism and fascism in Europe: case of Romania

The article focuses on the essence of populism and fascism in the context of the political regime in Romania. It analyses the real threat of fascism in the interwar period in Romania as well as a negative impact on the socio-economic sphere in the Romanian society. The article also points to the fact that the fascist party in Romania was short-lived. The dictatorship of Ion Antonesku and his followers, in fact, implemented some points of their program (eg, anti-Semitic activities), adopting mate nationalistic and conservative ideology, but it did not accept the fascist "revolutionary" ideas and totalitarian structures. Populism is a good option for election campaigns. After all, people always like a simple and understandable way without undue burden. Human logic and speculation aid such a way. Nevertheless, populism is a nourishment for authoritarian leaders.

Greater Eurasian partnership: economic perspectives of integration with the EAEU

This article analyzes the current state and future prospects of integra- tion associations and formats of multilateral economic cooperation from the point of view of the implementation of the Comprehensive Eurasian Partnership initiative. The author analyzes the role of this initiative as an instrument of Russian politics and assesses its potential for strengthening international cooperation in Eurasia. In partic- ular, it analyzes the possibilities of harmonizing key projects and initiatives within the EAEU. The work examines the potential of the largest multilateral formats in Eurasia as in the economic sphere – the Comprehensive Regional Economic Partner- ship, the Belt and Road Initiative, the Eurasian Economic Union, etc. to multilateral economic projects in Eurasia as a locomotive for promoting strategic interests, as well as realizing the potential of the EAEU. It is concluded that institutional overload is observed in the economic sphere of Greater Eurasia, caused by the existence of a number of parallel developments of in- tegration initiatives and mechanisms of economic cooperation. Based on the forego- ing, the strengthening of the EAEU as the institutional core of Greater Eurasia can become the basis for the formation of a regulatory mega-space. However, the aggre- gate economic potential of the EAEU member states does not allow the Union to be the largest economic pole and a leading center for the development of multilateral in- stitutions in Greater Eurasia. It is assumed that the solution to this problem could be the development of the Comprehensive Eurasian Partnership towards the conjugation of the EAEU and RCEP – the largest format for developing rules for international economic interaction in Asia and formulating specific proposals for building a system of mutually beneficial relations between the largest players of Eurasia, in which all interested states will be involved on mutually beneficial terms to strengthen interna- tional cooperation.

Intercultural communication from the perspective of individualist and collectivist cultures

The process of globalization, which initially dominated only the economic sphere, subsequently led to profound socio-political and cultural transformations, influencing interethnic and inter-confessional relations in multicultural and multilingual environments. In the context of the new socio-political and cultural realities, the need to raise awareness of the importance of intercultural communication is evident. Intercultural communication contributes to overcoming the negative aspects of individualism and collectivism, changes the human perception of traditional values, causes changes in the way people think and behave.

Methodology for the latent indicators formation

The food industry is the most important link in the food realm of the country, determining the possibility of its autonomous existence in critical situations. This type of industry plays a leading role in solving the issue of providing the population with food products in a sufficient range and quantity. The food industry is in demand all over the world, since the need for food is the basic need of every person. The uniqueness of the Russian food industry is determined by its close connection to regional peculiarities and, as a result, the uneven distribution of food industry enterprises across the country. The study is devoted to the analysis of interrelationships of the food industry indicators with the indicators of the socio-economic sphere and the formation of latent indicators of the economy according to the indicators of de- velopment of the food industry on the example of the Volga Federal District. The paper presents a multidimensional study of the closeness of relationship between the indicators of the food industry and the indicators of the socio- economic sphere using canonical analysis. The indicators of the food industry have the greatest connection with the indicators of public health, since the significant coefficient of canonical correlation in 2019 was more than 0.6. In this group of indicators, the analysis of canonical correlation revealed that such indicators as the production of livestock and poultry for slaughter, as well as the gross harvest of vegetables, have the most significant influence. The coefficients for the indicators of total fertility and mortality rates are dramatically high in the studied groups. This indicates that the de- terioration in the quality and quantity of products will lead to a decrease in the birth rate and an increase in the mortality rate. In this paper, based on canonical variables, the visualization of multidimensional data is carried out and a method for classifying regions in according to their resources and potential is proposed. The results of clustering focusing on the plant resources and trade potential show which territorial authorities situated close can exchange technological experi- ence and provide support to each other. The paper also ranks the entities of the Volga Federal District, according the degree of impact of the food sector indicators with the use of latent indicators.

Palace Coups in Russia: Comparative Typologization

This article considers palace coups as one of the key phenomena of Russian political culture, which intertwined traditions and innovations, accidents and patterns, personal and corporate interests, prudence and adventurism. It analyzes methods and mechanisms by which the Russian autocrats of the late 17th – 18th centuries ascended to the throne. The ways of ascension to the throne were different, but they had one thing in common – compliance with clear rules of succession was very far from ideal, which was significantly different from most European monarchies. In monarchies where inheritance was legally fixed by the principle of primogeniture, it was much more difficult to carry out palace coups. There was no such mandatory legal norm for the Romanov dynasty. Palace coups in Russia did not lead to changes in the social and economic sphere or in the mechanisms of functioning of the state, with the exception of the political careers of individual dignitaries. The last palace revolution in the history of Russia took place in 1801 and symbolically completed the 18th century for it. Most of the changes on the Russian throne during the 18th century took place in the form of a “palace coup” with the participation of representatives of the dynasty and, as a rule, the highest dignitaries. Such methods of changing rulers reflected a certain instability of the supreme power, disputes about the ways of modernizing the country, the consequences of Peter the Great’s reforms and, in fact, intra-dynastic contradictions.

Innovation and economic growth: The Belarusian aspect

The article deals with the correlation of the results of theoretical research concerning the causality of the concepts of innovation and economic growth with their practical implementation in the economic sphere of Belarus. The author assesses the level of innovative development of the Belarusian economy and suggests organizational mechanisms for its systemic growth.